US aid group admits unauthorized individuals took control of Gaza convoy in deadly incident yesterday
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
A US-based aid group admits that a group of individuals, that the Israeli military claims were armed, took control of an aid convoy in the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, without the aid group vetting them or coordinating with the IDF.
Yesterday, the IDF said a convoy of aid trucks from the American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera) organization entered the southern Rafah area with Israeli coordination. During the drive, the military said a group of gunmen took over the vehicle at the front of the convoy, in what the IDF described as a hijacking attempt.
The IDF said it was able to determine that it could strike the car with the gunmen without harming the rest of the convoy. It then carried out the strike, killing at least four.
Anera in a statement says that after the convoy departed the Kerem Shalom crossing, “four community members with experience in previous missions and engagement in community security” with their transport company, Move One, “stepped forward and took command of the leading vehicle, citing concern that the route was unsafe and at risk of being looted.”
“The four community members were neither vetted nor coordinated in advance,” Anera admits.
The organization claims that “the four individuals were not perceived by the convoy as a hostile threat” and that the Israeli strike “was carried out without any prior warning or communication.”
No Anera employees were hurt in the incident, and the convoy made it to its destination.
The IDF said yesterday that “the presence of armed men in a humanitarian convoy without coordination is against the procedures and makes it difficult to secure the convoys and their workers and thus also harms the humanitarian effort in Gaza.”
